Cultural monstrosity, genetically modified fart

We went for a walk today to see the tulip beds up at the Cavendish underpass, but the city had left black tarpaulins on the gardens, and only a few tulips could struggle through. It was quite a disappointment, so I joked that the tulips were cancelled. A cultural cancellation. As I cut open old paint tubes that are mostly empty, its an opportunity to do these funny paintings. The main paint here is lemon yellow (PY175), a slightly whiteish yellow, pleasant for summery scenes. 

Culutre Cancelled, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, May 2026

What does the interior of a monstrosity look like? This painting sums it up. For the design, I emulated a digital drawing I made on my smartphone awhile ago you can see it linked here. On digital, you can go over things no problem, or erase entirely, but in watercolour, its hard to layer things unless you go light to dark, like you see in the painting. Placing the black highlights on last took a bit of courage, it can easily go wrong!

Monstrosinterior, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, May 2026

Starting with orange dots, surrounded by yellow, then circled with brown and filled in with maroon, you end up with... genetically modified farts. Enough said. 

Genetically Modified Fart, watercolour 7.5 x 11" watercolour paper, May 2026  (No. 1473b)

 

How the Cat Saw It

How do cats really see things and think about things? Who knows, but its probably different than we think. In the painting, a cat prowls after a green laser-dot from a pointer, while a one-eyed mouse creature scurries in the foreground. This painting is a remake of an old painting I made in 2009 of the same name which I never posted on the blog. When I saw the name of the painting in my catalogue, I was like, what is that!? Digging it out of the box, and it was a very odd painting, kind of Halloween style set in an orange and pink cavern. For this version I redesigned the scene a little and changed the cat around to be on the prowl. I almost didn't even sign this painting, because who else would paint something like this, other than maybe, the cat...  

How the Cat Saw It, watercolour 8 x 10" hot press, May 2026

Endless Pylons

I hope the Mayor of Montreal sees this painting, after proclaiming that orange pylons would be banished from Montreal! Its a scene looking along the Concorde Bridge towards downtown. The nice thing is they finished paving the bike path after many years of working on it, so the path was silky smooth. Traffic was actually moving along the bridge, the pylons seem to be there instead of road lines. Not sure... 

To paint Endless Pylons, I started with the road, bike path, and side of bridge, along with the river underneath. Next I filled in the sky and tree-line, with building details in the background. When dry, I applied the pylons over top of the road using a mix of benzi orange (PO62) and pyrol orange (PO73), which I call "Montreal Orange" because it replicates the exact shade of pylons. Its looking like there will be a lot of orange this summer!  

Endless Pylons, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Tulips and Montreal Orange construction

Spring is a time for colourful flowers like these orange and pink tulips, with a few yellow dandelions in the grass. Its also a time for construction signs and pylons.... "Montreal Orange". Its a mix of benzi orange paint (PO62) and red-orange paint (PO73). To do this painting, I worked up the colour highlights first, then filled in the sky, bridge, and middle-ground. Today, I used a separate brush to do the sky with phthalo blue (PB15) and blue-green (PG7), so as to keep the other brushes clean. Since I started cleaning the brushes after every trip, I noticed how much phthalo blue remains in the brushes, and it makes the bright colours difficult to achieve, especially yellow and orange. So today, the colours were really popping in my paintings. 

Tulips Cartier bridge, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

It was pretty disappointing today... the boardwalk that oversees Old Port was completely blocked off for construction, every other street downtown was construction, and the bridges connecting to Notre Dame Island were completely blocked off. I was hoping to get to Notre Dame Island to paint the flowers and flowering-trees. You can see my post from May 3 2025 on the location. So instead I made another tribute painting to Montreal... Construction blocking the Concorde bridge with sage advice on the signs. 

Montreal FU construction, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Spring flowers and greens

Down in Parc Gédéon-De Catalogne (st Henri) near the Lachine canal, there is a long and narrow park with landscaping, including a long ess-shaped garden with hundreds of flowers. At this time, white and yellow daffodils were coming up, along with a few red tulips in the background, and some magenta ground cover flowers in the bottom right. The lawn was done with bright yellow (PY184) and green (PG36), when dry, over-painted with green and yellow hatch marks for texture. 

 Daffodils st Henri, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, May 2026

 

This scene is Viger square, which is built over top of the rte 136 underground highway. There was a noisy seagull cawing at me. Two trees with very different shades of green are in the background. The left tree is mostly done with bismuth yellow (PY184) dabbed with yellow-orange (PY110) or dilute green (PG36). On the right, the tree is dilute perylene green (PBk31) overpainted with a mix of perylene green and regular green. The lawn is bismuth yellow with regular green. It was nice to practice painting green again!

Shades of green noisy gull, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

In the same Viger park, I turned and painted this scene of a bench painted with 'Land Back'. It was a great place to stand and paint... good sight lines, and a warm sun falling on the scene. I had almost forgotten what shadows looked like with all the overcast weather we have been having. 

Land back bench, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

It was also good to see the water flowing down st Lawrence river, its been frozen for ages it seems. This view is looking upstream from Old Port, you see the Concorde bridge which connects Montreal to st Helens Island. After, I would ride across that bridge towards the island. 

Concorde bridge spring, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

No garbage

Taking a bit of a ride after the office, I headed down the Maisonneuve bike path and made a quick painting near the Girouard underpass. This sign is posted at the alley behind a car mechanic, I just liked the contrast, and the interesting textures on the brick wall behind, which was covered in graffiti. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny for once, I hope to get some good Spring scenes done. 

No garbage, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Spring... even pylons turning green

Trees need lots of rain in the spring but how about liquor? This tree had a small plastic liquor bottle wedged in its branches, as if it were taking a swig. Its down at the Fort street ramps, part of a small park called Ernest Cormier Esplanade. I was hoping there would be flowers, but maybe this kind of tree wont make flowers. Its only half the tree shown. 

Spring tree drinking, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Even the pylons are turning green this spring! I spotted some rare green and orange pylons down near the Notre Dame and Peel construction site, it seemed essential to paint them. Usually the pylons are orange and white, sometimes with magenta or black. This location is where the highway underpass starts, and many signs.

Green and orange pylons, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Its a sign of summer more than spring... orange traffic signs and construction. This one is part of the massive upheaval around Peel street downtown, but the site is up on st Antoine cross with Cathedral street. I made the background deliberately confusing, like WTF, or where am I? The orange is a mix of PO62, with dabs of PO73... I call it 'Montreal Orange'

Cathedral st Antoine construction., watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026